How to make a plastic (UHMW) skid plate

[Muggzy]

I've got enough extra material left to make some A-arm skids too. Those I'll curl around the front edges like I did for this one. But now that she's got all the most important armor, I can finally take her out. The rubber tubing I put over the A-arms will have to do. I'm seriously jonesing for a ride

If there's enough interest, I'll post up wear reports to let you know how they behave as glides and how they hold up. I had a DG belly skid and an Armadillo swingarm skid on my my last bike and beat the crap out of them.

The more I think of it, the more I definitely wanna get the fronts done too. Gotta ride first though.

 

[Muggzy]

Member "Blamed" did a skid plate, might want to check his out too.

I think you mean "Blaner" and yeah, I though his was pretty cool and a decent low cost version. Wasn't crazy about the bolt heads sticking out on that one though.

 

[Larry's Shee]

Fat thumbs on tablet, no bueno

 

[bummer981]

Nice fabbing, good clean install

 

[tbrooks]

Nice job and write up!

 

[Muggzy]

Thanks Guys!

 

[Muggzy]

OK, Here's the first ride report:
I intentionally ran a couple of good sized rocks under the center rather than running the wheels over them. Definitely "glided" over them - no lurch like you get with the alum. The hits were taken on the swing arm skids;


The A-arms got a scraping so I'm gonna make some armor for those too

 

[Muggzy]

So I started the A-arms today:
I have plenty of UHMW and conduit straps left, so all I needed was a set of the rotor mounting screws. Found several people selling them on ebay for $10 a set + $6 for the ride.

For the template, this time I taped a piece of cardboard in place and carefully traced it from the top since I had the access. From there, I found the centerlines in order to locate the conduit strap mounting holes. I'm also gonna put a leading edge protector on it as well:

 

[Muggzy]

Only needed the one and I just flipped it to get both sides. Got both of them cut out today and now I gotta wait for the screws. I'd like to heat the plastic, mount it in place and use the a-arms themselves to form it around. I may change my mind about that before the screws get here though.

 

[Iwantablaster]

Post some pics of the finished a-arm guards!

 

[Muggzy]

Here ya go...

I've put several rides on 'em in some really rocky terrain and I couldn't be happier with how they're holding up. The swing arm glides on the swingarm skid plate, not so much. I've already ripped one off on rocks, but the swingarm takes a WAY more severe beating than the rest. Thinking of trying to make the swinger glides out of 1/2 material with larger screws. Not much reaction to this post over here, so I haven't been updating it.

If you're interested on more how-to info for the a-arms (and the rest of the plastic forming);

http://bansheehq.com/forums/index.php?/topic/183231-making-my-own-plastic-uhmw-skid-plate/?p=1741305

 

[pudvah]

looks good though, at least it ripped the plate off and not a piece of the quad.

 

[Muggzy]

Thanks, yeah the Armadillo swing arm skid will hold up to that kind of abuse pretty well. It was just the glides that I put on it to smooth the hit that got ripped off.

 

[Iwantablaster]

Ok, thanks for the updated pics! Looks great!